Page 57 of Drawn Together

“Two days since we’ve seen each other and you start out by scolding me?”

“You have to tell us where you’re going, Marfil.”

I looked at his track pants, his white sleeveless shirt, and I,too, felt a desire for him. I’d missed him, and I hated how cold he’d been with me ever since we’d arrived at my father’s house.

“I needed to be alone.”

Sebastian pressed his lips together but didn’t say anything else.

“Were you going to work out?” I asked as water dripped from my forehead down to my neck, finally disappearing into my bathing suit’s neckline.

I knew that’d been the exact trajectory, because Sebastian’s gaze traced the water’s path down my body.

“I was going to,” he answered.

“Has my presence caused you to change your mind?”

“I’m back to work,” he answered, looking away, then back at me. “I realized I couldn’t leave you in someone else’s hands.” His eyes paused on my right knee. I had fallen off the horse during a jump that didn’t land entirely well. It was just a scratch, no big deal. The cut was already starting to heal.

“It was my fault, not Wilson’s,” I answered.

“I know,” he said, staring at my mouth. “You haven’t stopped moving since we got here.”

I shrugged. “I like to run wild.”

He didn’t argue, and I suddenly had the desperate urge to feel his hands on my face, my arms, my hair… I needed to feel the way I did when our bodies were in contact.

“You should go back up now,” he said, when the tension between us became too intense to bear.

I looked toward the gym. “I think I’m going to stay down here and do some exercise.”

“You’ve been swimming for an hour.”

“And you finally answered my first question,” I replied as I let the towel fall, standing in front of him in nothing but my bathing suit.

His eyes paused on my legs for a fleeting second.

I leaned over to pick up the sweatpants I’d worn over my swimsuit, and I pulled them on with excessive slowness.

“I think I’ll do some kickboxing,” I said, walking around him and entering the gym. It was stocked with every type of equipment you could imagine: treadmills, ellipticals, all kinds of weights, stationary bicycles, punching bags… I had no idea how to box, but I wanted more time with Sebastian.

He followed me, just like I was certain he would, and watched in silence as I picked out some gloves that I knew would end up being huge on me. I put the first one on and immediately realized I couldn’t put on the second one, since my right hand was rendered useless by the glove.

Sebastian stepped in front of me. “Why did you put on those gloves?”

I blinked twice before answering. “Because I’ll hurt my hands without them, won’t I?”

Sebastian held out his hand. “Give them to me,” he said. “If you’re ever attacked, you won’t be wearing gloves.” He pulled them off my hands. “Effective punching and kicking requires a lot of training, and most of all, a lot of strength.” Sebastian threw the gloves down and walked to the black exercise mat in the center of the room. “Come here,” he said.

I walked over to him, excited to be resuming our self-defense lessons.

“When do you think a woman is most vulnerable during an attack?” he asked.

I thought about it for a few seconds. “When there’s a man on top of her.”

Sebastian nodded silently. “Lie down.”

My heart stopped. I lay down on my back as he stood over me. From that position, he looked even more enormous.